


Old Songs, Old Friends

by squeaklings



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 04:44:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squeaklings/pseuds/squeaklings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie learns not all old songs are silly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Songs, Old Friends

**Author's Note:**

> My second-years sang this in class and it filled me with Feelings (as it always does) and Ideas and this is the result.

Jamie entered his room humming softly to himself. His mother had been listening to her radio station as she cleaned (seriously, who still listened to the _radio_?) and one of the less-boring songs managed to stick itself in his head.

A cold breeze wafted through his slightly open window and he smiled. Jack would be back soon. He’d flown off to tend to something a few days ago, but he never seemed to leave Burgess for very long. Not that Jamie saw him every day, but he could see Jack’s touch in the frost on his window, the burst of wind that snatched homework from hands and myriad other, little details.

He always left the window open for Jack, though, no matter how much his mother scolded him about the heat bill.

Jamie sat down at his desk, pencil tapping against the homework lying in front of him, the song still looping repetitively in his head. At least the chorus was catchy (for an old-person song).

“ _Puff, the magic dragon_ ,” he sang under his breath, and then made a grab at his homework as the wind suddenly snatched it away. “Jack!”

“Hey kiddo,” Jack said, crouching on the windowsill with a sheet of paper in hand. “Miss me?”

“Of course!” Jamie greeted his friend with a high-five but was sure to snatch the paper back. He’d nearly gotten detention last time when his teacher didn’t believe when he said Jack Frost took it. “Everything ok?”

“Yeah. Were you singing?” Jack grinned and ruffled Jamie’s hair. “Didn’t think you were a crooner.”

Jamie waved the Guardian off, his cheeks red. “It’s just some stupid song my mom was listening to. It got stuck in my head.”

Jack jumped into the room, a small gust of wind following in his wake as he slung his staff over his shoulders. Jamie sighed as half his textbooks fell off the desk. “Yeah? What song? I probably know it.”

“’Puff the Magic Dragon,’ or something. It’s really silly, and—Jack?” The teen stopped as he looked up at his friend. He’d bent down to pick up his textbooks while he talked. Jack stood by the window, perfectly still, a sadness in his eyes that Jamie had never seen. “Did I say something wrong? I’m sorry!”

“It’s not a silly song, Jamie,” Jack finally said. He looked around the teen’s room, at the posters and scattered clothes, the toys tossed in corners or left untouched on shelves. “I think you should listen to it again.” He smiled then, although it didn’t completely erase the sadness in his eyes. “But first things first, I brought snow and it’s not gonna throw itself! Get the gang, I’ll meet you at the park.”

By the time Jamie returned later that night he’d completely forgotten about the song. But when he flipped on his desk lamp he found a CD lying on top of his homework, half-covered by a note.  
 _  
Heard from Jack. Is not favorite but please be listening to song._

Jamie peeled off North’s note and blinked at the CD beneath it. When had Jack found time to contact the other Guardian? Shrugging, Jamie put the CD in his laptop and opened his history book, ready to at least _try_ to finish some homework.

Only for his pen to fall from his hands and tears blur his vision as he finally, actually _listened_ to the song.

The next time he saw Jack was over a week later, when the Guardian brought a heavy snowfall. Jack sat waiting on his windowsill as Jamie arrived home, and the teen nearly knocked the Winter Spirit out the window with the force of his hug.

“Woah! I didn’t think I’d been gone _that_ long.”

“I’m sorry!” Jamie clung to him like he had when he was younger. “I’m sorry I called it a stupid song, I didn’t realize—“

Jack ruffled the boy’s hair. “It’s ok, don’t worry.” He pulled the teen away so he could look in the other’s eyes. “I’m not mad at you.”

Jamie scrubbed at his face with his sleeve. “I feel like a jerk.”

“Haha, hardly.” Jack settled down on the sill, one leg dangling while he pulled the other against his chest, his staff held loosely at his side. “It’s not exactly a favorite song of ours.”

“I can see why.” Jamie sat on the foot of his bed, and on impulse picked up an old, stuffed toy half-hidden under the bed frame. With a start he realized it was a bunny. “Is he real?”

“Hmm?”

Jamie ran his hands over the bunny’s ears. The toy was old and worn, a faded grey with stuffing peeking out here and there. He remembered hiding it under the bed years ago when his mom was on a clean-everything-out yard sale kick. “Puff.”

Jack tapped the window with the crook of his staff and watched as whorls of frost crept up the panes. “What do you think?”

The teen sat silently for a long time before he put the stuffed rabbit down gently beside his pillow. “I think if he is real, someone else keeps finding him so he isn’t all alone. But if not,” he smiled, “he’s always welcome here. I can think of a few ways to liven up this town with a dragon.”

Jack laughed.


End file.
